Please, please watch this:
I've never seen Cenk this worked up before but I sympathize. When I first learned of this situation early this morning I felt utterly sick. I couldn't believe it was happening here - in the United States of America. You can't tell me that any of the Founding Fathers would have just stood there while someone's house burned down.
By the way, I saw the owner being interviewed on another program and he said that he forgot to send in his $75 this year.
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Terrible. Just terrible.
ReplyDeleteI put it on my blog, too. Thanks for pointing me to it.
Hello, Karl. I'm glad to see you here.
ReplyDeleteI notice from your profile that you are a Lutheran pastor. I'm actually a solitary nun in the Anglican tradition. If you click through to my profile, you'll find links to my other two blogs which are both spiritually focused.
Interestingly, right now I'm teaching a six week prayer course on Sunday afternoons at a lovely Lutheran church not far from me here in Tulsa. I'm enjoying it very much. No doubt you know that in the U.S. the Episcopal Church and the ECLA are in full communion now.
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ReplyDeleteI've been following your blog for quite some time now. As you may have noticed, I have an RSS feed of it on my blog.
ReplyDeleteI had heard that the ELCA and TEC are in communion. That corresponds to the situation here in Europe, I am happy to say. The "Porvoo communion" (named after my home town!) comprehends the Lutheran churches of the Nordic and Baltic countries (with the exception of the reactionary Latvian church) and the Anglican churches of the British Isles.
But you probably knew that already.
All the best, dear sister!
As soon as I read the title of this post, I was thinking to myself. What, how would this happen?
ReplyDeleteThis is just an awful thing to let happen over $75 dollars. I don't care if it's thousands of dollars, they needed to put out that fire. That was someone's whole life in that house. Now, he's left with nothing.
If the city or county must charge for fire protection, they should have put an addendum onto the legislation which would require the firefighters to put out the fire and then to charge the homeowners a thousand dollars (or whatever would be regarded as a fair amount. This way most homeowners would pay their annual fee for protection, but there would still be protection for those who "forgot" to pay. I cannot imagine firefighters standing and watching a fire destroy a home -- what if there had been children trapped inside? I think the current system is insane...
ReplyDeleteSince you all seem to be of the same mind, I will gladly throw a wrench in the mix.
ReplyDeleteHe did not forget to pay. He may be saying this now as he tries to get some sympathy. However, he gambled and lost. He was quoted as saying, "I thought they'd come out and put it out, even if you hadn't paid your $75, but... I was wrong."
If you "forget" to pay your car insurance and you get into an accident, will your insurance allow you to pay your normal rate after you try and file. No sir. No service.
Why is this any different?
You choose to live in an area which requires no city taxes. You choose no to send in money to the fire department.
Personal responsibility people.
"You can't tell me that any of the Founding Fathers would have just stood there while someone's house burned down."
ReplyDeleteYou are referring to the same founding fathers who stirred up a war by choosing not to pay their taxes.
History is often seen through rose-colored glasses.
Fortuntately, there were no children in the house. Three dogs and a cat, however, died in that fire. Firefighters have been known to heroically save animals who were trapped in abandoned buildings that caught fire. Were these animals not worthy of being saved? It wasn't their fault that their human companions didn't pay the $75.
ReplyDeleteIt is entirely possible that a person BOTH forgot to pay AND thought that they would still be protected if they didn't pay. Those are not mutually exclusive.
The rallying cry of the American Revolution, "No taxation without representation" is not even remotely germane here. Apples and oranges.
You might like to do a search on the history of fire fighting and fire departments. In the old days, fire protection was, indeed, by individual insurance subscription only and, as a result, whole communities were endangered. Also, nefarious opportunists practiced extortion by deliberately setting fires. Civilized countries, therefore, made fire fighting a protection for everyone - just like the police and the military.
Here in Tulsa, we can pay for our ambulance emergency protection insurance on our water bill each month. It's voluntary however. Still, the paramedics will come to the house of a person who doesn't pay. It's just that they will get a bill afterward. I don't see why that approach couldn't have worked since the man said he'd pay anything to have his house saved.